From Editors

Abstract

From the EditorsDear readers,We are honoured to greet you with the first issue of 2018. This issue contains two reports, four original articles and one two from the editor. The title of the first report is “Physicians' social media use and ethics”. In her report, Avcı discusses ethical issues with specific examples, and investigates the key issues found in the preparation of social media guidelines. The second report deals with intestinal microbiota and health. In their report, Kalip et al. investigate the roles of gastrointestinal microbiota on immune system functions, as well as on the regulation of the metabolism.The original articles published in this issue cover many important public health issues. The first, conducted by Çamur et al., investigates water management in Turkish municipalities from the perspective of employees. Based on their results, the authors suggest that recruitment of certified and trained personnel in the most extreme applications, such as network control and water storage, must be compulsory. The second original article entitled “Disability and alexithymia among elderly people living at home in the center of Gümüşhane” was based on a study of 437 elderly people registered to 14 family practice units. The results of this study, done by Yiğitbaş et al., show that almost four out of five elderly people have a disability. Authors suggest that for the wellbeing of the elderly, healing and rehabilitation efforts should be planned with a particular focus on factors that affect the incidence of disability and alexithymia.The third article, written by Akçay and Ozcebe, is about lead exposure awareness of families with children aged 0-6. This descriptive study, with the participation of 101 parents, found that 86.1% of the parents did not have sufficient knowledge of lead poisoning.In a descriptive study conducted by Ersöz et al., employee health and safety practices in public and private healthcare institutions were investigated. The results of the study show that only 10.1% of health workers had satisfactory access to occupational physicians, whereas only 0.8% received enough support from occupational health and safety experts.Bakar’s letter to the Editor is based on an article published at NEJM with the title “Saying Goodbye to Lectures in Medical School - Paradigm Shift or Passing Fad?“. In his letter, Bakar is retelling the limitations of traditional classroom settings and indicating that Public Health society can have a pioneering role in providing an objective discussion to evaluate outcomes of current medical education practices.The second letter deals with the subject of the Sagmalcilar Cholera epidemic, a topic previously authored by Bakar and published in the December 2017 issue of our Journal. In his letter, Dedeoglu writes about the experiences of an esteemed Public Health Professor involved in the examination of the aforementioned epidemic. Through an examination of such a case study, Dedeoglu highlights important advice and warnings about epidemic management. We hope that you enjoy April issue of our Journal. We would like to thank all the authors and reviewers who have contributed to this new issue.Sibel Sakarya, Yücel Demiral